Latest developments:
- Ukraine’s military cites some success in fighting along the front lines to the south of the Russian-occupied city of Bakhmut.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tells reporters at recent NATO summit that Ukraine needs long-range weapons.
Russian attacks killed at least three Ukrainian civilians and wounded another 38 in the last day, Ukraine’s presidential office reported Thursday.
The government in Kyiv said Russian forces targeted 13 cities and villages under Russian control in the partially occupied eastern Donetsk region with air attacks, missiles and heavy artillery.
In the Zaporizhzhia region, also partly Russian occupied, Ukraine said 21 people were injured by drone debris on Wednesday and that fires broke out in Kherson after Russian shelling.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials said their air defenses shot down 20 Iranian-made drones fired by Russia that targeted the Kyiv region. But they said wreckage from the drones fell on four districts of the capital early Thursday, hospitalizing two people with shrapnel wounds and destroying several homes.
The interior ministry said firefighters extinguished a blaze in a 16-story apartment building and another fire in a non-residential building. Debris also smashed into the front of a 25-story apartment building.
The latest wave was the third consecutive night in which the drones were used in attacks on Kyiv.
Elsewhere, Ukraine said one of its missile strikes killed a senior Russian officer, Lt. Gen. Oleg Tsokov, who was leading Moscow’s forces against Kyiv's recent counteroffensive in southern Ukraine.
Ukraine said Tsokov was killed when the Ukrainian military struck the city of Berdyansk on Tuesday with British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles. Russia's defense ministry has not confirmed Tsokov's death.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
